Pete Crow-Armstrong has already done something few hitters ever manage: he put himself alongside Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig in the record books. And somehow, that still wasn’t the strangest part of his summer.
The Cubs outfielder was shown a goofy theory that Ruth, whose career ended long before Crow-Armstrong was born, may not have been a real person at all. He didn’t shoot it down.
“Maybe,” Crow-Armstrong said in the viral clip shared by Talkin’ Baseball. “That’s possible.”
No, he did not deny it.
The delivery was so deadpan it made the whole exchange land even harder. Fans spend plenty of time arguing about Ruth’s competition, his home run totals and how his game would look in today’s sport. Crow-Armstrong may be the first prominent MLB player willing to leave even the tiniest opening for the idea that the Ruth legend was made up.
For the record, Babe Ruth absolutely existed. There are photographs, videos, newspaper stories, official statistics and plenty more to prove it. Crow-Armstrong just wasn’t alive to watch any of it.
That distance from baseball’s earliest icons has shown up before. After a monster June pushed him into statistical company with Ruth and Gehrig, Crow-Armstrong said those names felt more like folklore than something personal.
“I haven’t seen the names, I haven’t really looked at the numbers,” Crow-Armstrong told the Chicago Sun-Times in July. “That’s funny, like, I don’t really have much of a reaction, because I didn’t grow up watching those guys.”
He later called the comparison “pretty weird” because of how long ago Ruth and Gehrig played.
And the reason the conversation even came back around is simple: that June was absurd. Crow-Armstrong hit .381 with 11 home runs, 15 walks and a 1.249 OPS. According to OptaStats, he joined Ruth and Gehrig as the only players to post at least a .375 average, a .775 slugging percentage, 80 total bases, 15 walks, 10 home runs and five stolen bases in a single month.
That kind of production sounds almost invented.
The other part of the story is Crow-Armstrong himself. The 24-year-old has built a reputation as one of baseball’s most entertaining young players because he’ll joke, speak freely and answer in ways you don’t quite see coming. Pair that with his power, speed and elite defense, and you get one of the most recognizable faces on a Cubs team with serious postseason aspirations.
He may never fully buy into Babe Ruth as baseball folklore. But if Crow-Armstrong keeps stacking up stretches like that June, younger players may end up talking about him the same way someday.
At least there should be enough video evidence to prove Crow-Armstrong existed.
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The complication is the cost. San Diego is believed to be asking for pitching prospect Kade Anderson, and that puts Seattle in a familiar spot for a contender trying to balance the present against the future. Anderson is viewed as close to the majors and could be in line for his debut this year, so the Mariners have to decide whether immediate relief help is worth parting with a pitcher they may not have to wait much longer to see. [Read more 🡒]